Tag: vExpert

So, this is something I found out just after my first day at Nutanix. There is a Facebook post by Nutanix, stating the following:

Nutanix would like to congratulate all #vExpert winners with a personalized pint glass at #VMWorld! Winners- reach out to us if interested.

I sent out a tweet, and got back a couple of replies. Some folks don’t use Facebook, some won’t be visiting VMworld in the US (or Europe for that matter), and it wasn’t quite clear what info was needed.

In an effort to consolidate this a bit more, I set up a Google spreadsheet, that just has some basic info. Your first name, last name, Twitter handle, and if you will be visiting VMworld in the US or Europe. You don’t have to sign in, editing is possible when accessing the document using the direct link.

Should you not visit, I think we can arrange that the personalized pint glass will be shipped to you, and we will follow up with you regarding details on shipping. Just make sure that you either follow the Nutanix Twitter account, or my Twitter account so that we can send you a direct message should we need your shipping information.

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Things have been relatively quiet on my blog, and I need to apologize for that. I’ve been swamped in work, and besides work, I’ve also been busy with a suggestion for a book that was accepted by VMware Press. Plenty of stuff to do, but that is not an excuse to not blog. And for that, I am genuinely sorry.

That doesn’t mean that things haven’t moved forward though. The 2013 vExpert application was opened, and there was a call for papers for VMworld in 2013. I did actually submit one session proposal, and seems to have made it through the first round. That means it is off to public voting, and that is where I need some help.

I submitted my session titled “vCenter Operations: Advanced dashboard creation and monitoring made easy”. And I think the title speaks for itself, but let me give you an abstract anyway:

vCenter Operations: Advanced dashboard creation and monitoring made easy” does what the title says. Getting an initial start with vCenter Operations is easy, but the custom view gets people puzzled.

In my session, I will show that creating your own advanced dashboards isn’t rocket science, and try to show tips and tricks to create advanced dashboards in an easy way.

If you are interested in helping me out, the key thing to know is that you need a VMworld account. You can quickly register an account (free of charge, obviously) at http://www.vmworld.com. Once you registered your account, just follow this link:

From there on everything is relatively straightforward. You will get a list of all of the session proposals, all with a small icon of a white thumb in front of the sessions. To vote, just click on the thumb. You’ll receive a confirmation window that you voted, and the thumb will turn green:

So, if you feel like this may be something that could interest you, you can help by voting for me. And in case you don’t like my proposal? I’d recommend that you still have a look through the list of proposals, and help someone else with your votes. There are cool sessions which I personally like, like for example:

5076 – Design vC Ops Dashboards that make you a rockstar for your operators. Lessons learned from multi-year dashboard design using different data adapters.

4872 – Operating and Architecting a vMSC based infrastructure

4518 – A Technical Deep Dive on NFS Network Design

4570 – Ask the Expert VCDX’s

5155 – Network Virtualization for vSphere Admins: What You Need to Know

4769 – An Introduction to VMware’s vCloud Network and Security Virtualization Architecture and Platform as part of the Software Defined Data Center (SDDC).

And there are more good ones out there. Chad Sakac has also done a blog post on his favorite sessions here.

So please, vote for me, vote for others, but most important of all: vote! 🙂

Well, in the meantime people were nominated, or nominated themselves, and the resulting list of folks was posted here. And the number of vExperts has increased again, from 326 in 2011, to 390 at the time of writing, and the announcement states:

Due to the large number of applications, the list is still not complete, and we will be adding a couple dozen names to it over the next week or so. If you have not yet received an email from us, please have a little patience. We will make sure to let you know the results as soon as possible.

Which means that we will likely have over 400 vExperts this year. Pretty cool! And I’m happy and honored that I’m part of this group again. So, here’s a special thank you to John Troyer, Alex Meier and all of the folks part of the vExpert program. And also my congratulations to the folks who were awarded with the title, especially the new vExperts! 🙂

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It’s been almost been one year since VMware made a call to nominate folks for the VMware vExpert title, and now it’s time to nominate folks once again. To blatantly quote some figures, here are the number of vExperts over the last coupe of years:

2009 — 253

2010 — 300

2011 — 326

And that number will hopefully again increase this year.

So, what makes up a vExpert? Well, it’s basically simple. You nominate or apply for the title here: http://vmware.com/go/vexpert2012, and that’s all there is to it.

So, what makes someone a vExpert? Let me quote the description from the nomination page:

The VMware vExpert Award is given to individuals who have significantly contributed to the community of VMware users over the past year. vExperts are book authors, bloggers, VMUG leaders, tool builders, and other IT professionals who share their knowledge and passion with others. These vExperts have gone above and beyond their day jobs to share their technical expertise and communicate the value of VMware and virtualization to their colleagues and community.

In the past, this meant that you would apply and be evaluated by a group of folks inside of VMware, and then get awarded the vExpert title, or wouldn’t receive said title. However, all of the vSpecialist were judged by two categories. This year things have changed slightly, and people can classify themselves or the person they are nominating along three categories. To quote some details:

Seeing how well this program has worked so far, we wanted to grow it to include more VMware enthusiasts who may be doing their work of sharing the know-how away from the limelight of the Internet and public events. Our vExperts in the past have for the most part fallen into two implicit groups: bloggers/writers/evangelists and VMUG leaders. This year, we are making explicit three different paths to becoming a vExpert. As always, the common theme for the established and the new vExpert paths will be going above and beyond your day job to help others be successful with VMware solutions.

Evangelist Path
The Evangelist Path includes book authors, bloggers, tool builders, public speakers, and other IT professionals who share their knowledge and passion with others with the leverage of a personal public platform to reach many people. Employees of VMware can also apply via the Evangelist pathway.

Customer Path
The Customer Path is for internal evangelists and community leaders from VMware customer organizations. They have contributed to success stories, customer references, or public interviews and talks, or were active community contributors, such as VMUG leaders.

VPN (VMware Partner Network) Path
The VPN Path is for employees of our partner companies who lead with passion and by example, who are committed to continuous learning and to making their technical knowledge and expertise available to many. This can take shape of event participation, video, IP generation, as well as public speaking engagements.

Although we’re making the three paths explicit this year, there is only a single vExpert designation; we aren’t splitting the program into sections.

The exact details for the three paths can be found on the nomination page, and you will also find the other criteria and guidelines linked from there.

So, what are you waiting for?! Go and check it out, nominate yourself or someone you feel deserves it, and pay it forward! 🙂

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I received a mail over the weekend. It’s content was something like this:

Dear Bas Raayman,

We’re pleased to designate you as a vExpert 2011 as recognition of your contributions to the VMware, virtualization, and cloud computing communities. You’ve done work above and beyond, and we’re delighted to communicate more closely, to share resources, and to offer other opportunities for greater interaction throughout the year as we continue to grow knowledge and success in the community of IT professionals. Welcome to the vExpert 2011 Program!

[more stuff]

Now, first of all, it’s great to receive such a mail! I’ve been doing a lot of stuff with VMware as a part of my job, but I spend quite a bit of time outside of my job trying to share information related to VMware and virtualization in one way or the other. Being awarded with the title of vExpert is quite cool, and I would like to thank John Troyer and his accomplices who were busy trying to select the the people, reviewing what must have been hundreds of submissions.

But there’s one more thing to this package. Creating good content that people are actually willing to read and feel is valuable to them. After all, you are taking the time to read my posts, and I also need to thank you for that!

So, I’ve decided to do one thing. I’m going to act as if it didn’t happen, and as if I needed to take it up two notches to get the vExpert title. After all, it’s the effort that got me here in the first place, and me working even harder to create some good content can only benefit you as a reader, and myself by learning even more in the process of content creation.

So here’s to receiving the title, and at the same time to acting as if it didn’t happen. 😉